


And There You Are

by Tsukimi (starbox)



Category: Free!
Genre: Childhood Friends, Fluff, Growing Up, M/M, Memories, Mom Totally Knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 07:53:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starbox/pseuds/Tsukimi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto's mind wanders down memory lane, and Haru-chan is waiting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And There You Are

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally supposed to be a Tumblr MakoHaru Festival entry under "Blue and Green" and then under "Out-grown." I missed the deadline for both because I'm lame. So now you get this...
> 
> Takes place in the same universe as my main Free! fic but is mostly auxiliary to it.

   Makoto once more extricated himself from Ren’s death grip on his leg to make his way up to his room to study. The twins’ tapping at his door crescendoed until he heard the sound of his mother’s voice. Blissful silence reigned.  
    He turned a page in his literature book and read a few lines. Then he sighed and looked out the window. It was barely halfway through February, so there weren’t any real leaves to be seen. If he squinted though, he could tell that the branches were answering the call of spring by grudgingly sprouting little buds. He knew the sky would grow more clear over the next few weeks, and then, one sunny day, he would be able to see bright green leaves against the pure blue sky. Makoto’s eyes followed the few clouds he could see as he let his mind abandon literature entirely...  
  
                                                 *       *       *  
  
    “Haru-chan, is blue your favorite color?”  
    Makoto had stopped his cutting of red paper to lean toward his friend. The dark-haired boy was carefully arranging bits of royal blue squares on a sheet of white paper. He nodded and reached for pieces of sky blue from a neat pile to his right.  
    Makoto smiled and continued cutting, glancing around at the other new fifth graders in their classroom. It was their art period and they were making mosaics to represent what spring meant to them. Each child had accumulated a veritable rainbow of paper squares. Everyone, that is, except Haru. When he had taken his turn at the supply table he had slowly but surely selected five shades of blue.  
      
      
    “Hey, Haruka-kun!”  
    Haru looked up to see three girls in front of him. The one with pigtails was holding a blue bentou box.  
    “This is yours, right?”  
    Haru frowned slightly and stood up. The girls watched him as he went to check his cubbyhole in the back of the classroom. He returned, expression still puzzled, and shook his head.  
    “Weird... It looks exactly like yours though,” said the leader. She was about to sit down in the desk next to Haru when Makoto ran into the classroom, a bit out of breath and face pink.  
    “Haru-chan! I’ve lost my new--oh.”  
    He stared intensely at the bentou box the girl had placed on the desk by Haru, but didn’t move a muscle. The girls began laughing behind their small hands.  
    A girl held it out to Makoto. “Yours then?”     
    He nodded violently and received the lunchbox with downcast eyes. The girls waved at Haru and wandered off.  
    After a few seconds of silence, Haru turned from the window. “Did you buy that yesterday?”  
    Makoto tilted his head up with a wavering smile. “My old one... Remember how the handle was broken? So Mommy and I went right after school and looked at new ones and, well, now...”  
    His hands were wrapped tightly around the handle of the box.  
    “We match,” finished Haru quietly.  
    Makoto’s smile was blindingly bright for the rest of the day.  
  
  
    Haru’s favorite shoes were navy blue. The hat he wore on the trip with his parents to see his beloved waterfall was a dark royal blue. The cover on his small futon was a faded light blue. Whenever his parents offered him a choice of color, they would wait a few seconds and then smile when his serious face looked up at them to answer: “Blue.”  
    Makoto was indecisive. He was getting much better at making up his mind, but his parents opted to quietly eliminate some choices from his life in order to save him worry and save them time. They remembered all too well the incident in which he had burst into tears at a pastry shop over a decision on what treats to bring to the Nanase’s house. His mother liked to say it was because he had a good heart and hated leaving anything unchosen.  
    So when he began making some of his decisions quickly they looked for a reason.  
    Before the class field day: “Which water bottle, Makoto?”  
    “The blue one.”  
    Before leaving the house on a rainy day: “Which umbrella, Makoto?”  
    “The blue one.”  
    Before an outing with Haru: “Which--”  
    “The blue one.”  
    When the Tachibanas saw their son run to greet his best friend, the reason they had been searching for quickly became apparent. As Makoto talked to Haru, small hand on his taller friend’s arm, both sets of parents shared knowing smiles over the boys’ heads.  
  
  
     The fifth grade day-trip was an outing to learn about how squid were caught, dried, and packaged. Makoto was so excited that his parents had no trouble at all getting him out of bed. He dressed quickly (a first on a class outing day) and got underfoot in the kitchen before finally settling down at the breakfast table. His mother noticed that he kept looking down at his new shirt as if checking that it was still there. She kissed him goodbye and sent him off down the stairs, craning her neck slightly to see that Haru was on his way as well.  
    “Haru-chan! Did you wear it like you promised?”  
    Haru rolled his eyes and unzipped his hoodie swiftly. Makoto laughed and unzipped his sweatshirt to reveal the matching shirt, a soft blue with big applique stars scattered down the front.      
    As the bus made it’s way to the bay area, Haru watched the sea from the window, cheek smushed against the glass. Makoto was telling him a story about the cats that lived in the nearby temple.  
    “Hey, Makoto...”  
    “Yes, Haru-chan?”  
    “Is blue your favorite color?”  
    Makoto blinked and nodded slowly. Then realizing Haru wasn’t looking at him, he replied aloud: “I guess... I mean, yes, it is!”  
    “If that’s the case, then okay.”  
    He didn’t say anything else so Makoto sat silently, glancing at his friend and twisting the hem of his shirt in his fingers.  
    The fifth graders were divided up into their classroom groups for the trip. Since the friends were not currently in the same group Makoto waved goodbye to Haru and they didn’t see each other until everyone reunited for lunch. But the eyes that slowly met Haru’s looked completely different from the excited ones of that morning. Haru immediately frowned.  
    “Makoto, what happened?”  
    “Nothing, Haru-chan... Let’s eat over here, okay?”  
    Haru followed his friend to a spot on a wall, noticing how it was the farthest they could be from a circle of kids in Makoto’s group. Haru narrowed his eyes but simply asked Makoto what he had liked best so far. Haru contentedly ate lunch to the high, babbling sound of his friend’s voice.  
    When it was time to get back on the bus, the boys hopped off the wall. The other kids were beginning to gather in their groups to be counted. Makoto kept throwing glances at his group, but didn’t stray from Haru’s side.  
    Haru sighed and bumped his elbow into Makoto’s stomach. The smaller boy looked up into his face, eyes wide.  
    “Makoto... tell me.”  
    The boy was quiet for a moment then he started blinking rapidly.  
    “The other kids were saying... I’m sorry, Haru-chan! It’s just that I like what Haru-chan likes! That’s why we match... I’m sorry it’s weird! I’ll... I’ll tell them it was my idea so they won’t think Haru-chan is strange!”  
    Haru promptly put down his lunch box and walked away. A large tear rolled down Makoto’s cheek as he sucked in a trembling breath. But the other tears never fell, because he was watching Haru stride over to the boys on the other side of the clearing. Haru apparently said something to the boys’ ringleader. There was a short back-and-forth and then he returned to Makoto.  
    “Don’t cry, Makoto,” scolded Haru softly. “I told them it was my idea. They won’t say anything anymore.”  
    “Haru-channn!”  
    “Dummy, I told you not to cry...”  
                
  
    It was a few days before summer break. Everyone was using their free period to work on special projects. Makoto peeked around a tall presentation board to check on Haru’s planetarium creation.  
    “Are you okay, Haru-chan?”  
    “I need more paint.”  
    Makoto tilted his head and looked at the smooth planets lined up on Haru’s desk. His friend had painstakingly hand-painted each one and they looked amazing. But the Earth and Mercury were still white. Makoto went to his cubby hole and returned with his rarely used paint set.  
    “Here you go, Haru-chan.”  
    “Thanks.”  
    The next time Makoto peered at the planets, Haru was holding the last, Earth, in his hand, eyes focused as he outlined Africa.  
    “That’s amazing, Haru-chan! The continents must be so difficult!”  
    Haru re-dipped the brush in paint.  
    “I guess. But at least Earth is all blue or green.”  
    Makoto stepped closer and looked at the other planets. Jupiter’s swirls, the shadowy reds of Mars... Haru had captured it all.  
    “But some of the Earth is tan...”  
    Haru’s eyebrows quirked.  
    “I like it better this way. Just two colors.”  
    Makoto giggled at his determined face.  
    “You just want to be done, don’t you?”  
    Haru was apparently concentrating too hard to answer.  
  
  
    Over the summer Makoto sprung up like a shoot. It seemed like he was always hungry and he outgrew outfit after outfit. He felt awkward in his gangly body. He tripped going down the stairs from his house. He nearly stepped on the neighborhood’s slower cats. He bumped into furniture and his soft skin blossomed with bruises. He tried so very hard not to cry.  
     His favorite part of the day was when he could go play with Haru by the shrine, or bike with him to their swim club. Especially when he was swimming he tended to forget he was bigger than before. Haru never mentioned the fact that he now had to look _up_ at Makoto. He said not a word about how useless it was for Makoto to hide behind him anymore.  
    But one day he did say, “Your reach is better now.”  
    Makoto was pulling his shirt on over his head.  
     “Eh?” he sputtered.  
    “Your backstroke is longer. It’s good,” explained Haru.  
    Makoto smoothed his shirt down over his stomach and met his friend’s eyes. Haru’s face was relaxed, having just basked in the water for an hour and a half, and there was a small upturn to his lips. Makoto stopped his unconscious hunching and nodded happily.  
      
    Of all the clothes Makoto had to give up as he outgrew them, the blue star shirt was the last to go. He didn’t tell Haru. He just couldn't.   
    “You never wear our matching shirt anymore,” Haru commented without warning one day.  
    They were lying on their stomachs on Haru’s back porch, near the open sliding doors to the living room. Between them, they were sharing a blue popsicle.  
    “I’m too... I outgrew it,” admitted Makoto sadly.  
    Makoto stole a glance at Haru, who had just rolled over on his back and was watching his popsicle intently as he held it over his face.  
    “I wanted to keep it but Mommy said it was still a nice shirt for someone else...”  
    Haru stuck out his tongue as a drop of the melting blue popsicle fell. He missed it. Makoto giggled and sat up.  
    “You want a tissue, Haru-chan?”  
    The dark-haired boy frowned and stuck his tongue farther out of his mouth, stubbornly trying to reach the blue splotch. Makoto licked the side of his hand, like he’d seen his mother do many times, and scrubbed the popsicle off Haru’s face. Haru blinked in surprise, then went back to what appeared to be a staring contest with his frozen treat.  
    “I’m sorry about the shirt...” mumbled Makoto, after a minute.  
    Haru turned his head and looked Makoto right in the eyes. “Is blue your favorite color?”  
    “What?”  
    Haru was still watching him, so Makoto licked his popsicle thoughtfully. The blue of Haru’s eyes, and the blue of the sky, he liked that. He always had. But truthfully he liked many colors. He liked the color of his mother’s hair. And the color of his father’s car. And the colors that the neighborhood cats sported on their coats. And most of all, he liked the soft, bright green of the grass and the leaves in spring. He liked to touch and smell the green of the leaves, and hold one up to the sky and look through it at the sun. He liked how green and blue were always side by side, the colors of the world from outer space--just like Haru had said.  
    So when he looked back at Haru, he said “Green. I like green, like the leaves.”  
    And Haru nodded, understanding in his eyes.  
      
    At first, when Makoto’s parents reached for bigger shirts to hold up to their son’s chest, they continued to pick up blue ones. But more and more he shook his head and said he wanted something different. As that summer ended, his closet became a mix of bright colors.  
  
                                                       *       *       *                  
  
    Makoto shook himself from his reverie when heard what sounded like a stampede. He still couldn’t figure out how two children could generate that many decibels with only four grubby feet.  
    “Haru-chan!”  
    “Haru!”  
    He heard the twins yell in greeting, and he could almost feel that they were jumping up and down. He stood up with a sigh and moved swiftly downstairs. The moment he reached the landing, he saw Haru standing in the _genkan_ , a step below the rest of the house. Ran and Ren were peering into a paper bag he was holding.  
    “Ran, Ren! Let Haru come in!” Makoto ordered.  
    Haru looked up at Makoto and shook his head.  
    “I just brought these over for you...”  
    When the weather was still cold, and the pool strictly forbidden, Haru tended to appear every few days in the Tachibana _genkan_ bearing the fruits of his increasingly desperate boredom. Mrs. Tachibana, having heard the commotion, appeared from the kitchen and Haru finally reached into the bag. He pulled out small colored boxes tied with bunches of curled ribbon. He solemnly handed a dark blue box to Ren, a light orange one to Ran, and a yellow one to Mrs. Tachibana. The twins attack hugged the older boy with cries of “Thank you!” and then promptly ran off. Mrs. Tachibana thanked Haru as well, asking about the contents of the box.  
    “Mackerel cookies.”  
    “I can’t wait to try them...” she replied, expression guarded.  
    Haru nodded and then glanced up at Makoto's amused expression. Mrs. Tachibana’s wise eyes flitted from her son to his best friend, and with a smile she ducked back into the kitchen claiming a pot was boiling over.  
    “This one is for you,” announced Haru quietly.  
    He held out a green box, swathed in carefully arranged darker green ribbon. Makoto, one eyebrow raised, received the box with both hands.  
    “Haru... You mean the cookies are shaped like mackerel, right?”  
    His friend gave a small huff, then looked away. “Of course, dummy. What did you think?”

 


End file.
